The field of the disclosure relates generally to flight management, more particularly, to systems, devices and method of operation for flight management and applications thereof.
Because the cost of fuel is a large share of the operating expense in commercial aviation, energy efficiency and fuel savings are driving research in aircraft design and operations. The focus is on those technologies that save fuel: aircraft and engine design, control design, and flight path planning (called flight guidance).
Present Flight Management Systems (FMS) determine constant climb, cruise, and descent speeds and constant cruise altitude to minimize Direct Operating Cost given takeoff weight and range and assuming constant thrust for climb and idle thrust for descent. These simplifying assumptions have been applied to implement practical systems, but the simplifications yield suboptimal performance and compromised fuel savings.
What is needed is systems and methods that improve the optimization problem for all phases of flight without simplifying assumptions and using numerical methods to achieve guidance closer to optimum.